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Google-Tata project to open door to digital wallets in rural regions of India

Thursday 9 June 2016 10:57 CET | News

Google India and Tata Trusts are in talks with a host of ecommerce and digital wallets players such as Paytm, Amazon and Snapdeal to extend reach of ecommerce to rural areas as part of their joint project to take internet to remote places.

A year ago, Google India and Tata Trusts joined hands to facilitate digital literacy by making rural women aware of the benefits of the Internet. The project would now be converted into revenue generating.

More than that, the programme aims to overcome digital gender disparity in rural India where women influencers trained by Google, wielding a tablet and a smartphone, and riding a cycle cart, would reach villages and train women folk how to use smartphones, access the Internet, and search for information online. The programme now covers nine states including West Bengal.

But nearly a year after the initiative was launched, Google and Tata Trusts are now planning to make the project revenue generating in order to make it self-sustaining.

Considering the way the programme is scaling up, the partner can, at best, keep providing the token amount of Rs 1,000 a month to each of these internet saathis for the next six months.

Talks are also on with the telecom players particularly for providing and improving data access to areas where connectivity is poor.


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Keywords: Google, Tata project, digital wallets, rural regions, India
Categories: Payments & Commerce
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Countries: World
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